Unaware of the looming danger, everyone on the Tournament Island awaited for the 2nd Segment to commence.
Soon, the time they were waiting for arrived with Felarial's announcement.
"The rules for this Segment were pretty similar to the previous one, except for the two minor differences.
First, there won't be any group divisions or matching randomly against another team; rather, the choice will be in your hands. Each team will have one chance to challenge any other team ranked higher than their own.
Unlike the 1st Segment, this one has a penalty for losing a challenge match. The losing team will lose 50% of its overall Performance Score to the winning team. So, think twice before initiating a challenge.
To consolidate the top 25 teams' final ranks, challenges will be issued from the bottom to the top. We have 3 hours left before Day-10 comes to an end along with the Tournament. Let's wrap this Segment up by then."
The option to issue a challenge lifted the spirits of many teams, but only a few teams still had their prior motivation after learning of the penalty for losing.
Following Felarial's line of sight, everyone shifted their attention to the Zapwa team, which ranked at the bottom among the participating teams. Faced with being the first team to issue a challenge, they had wry looks on them.
They were already glad to be among the Top-25 teams. Not to mention they had no confidence in defeating even the team ranked just above them.
After all, if they were to lose, half their total Score would be stripped away, and that would push them out of the Top-25 positions.
So, the Zapwa team relinquished their sole chance to issue a challenge and consolidated their position as the 25th-ranked team in the Tournament.
Contrary to the audience's expectations, many teams followed in the same footsteps as the Zapwa team and shied away from issuing a challenge.
That trend continued all the way till the team in the 13th position stepped forward to challenge another team.
The Phudaclite Team emerged as the biggest dark horse next to the Falud Team. At the beginning of the 1st Segment, they were in 16th position and by the end of it, they had climbed three ranks.
Now they were aiming even higher by directly challenging the 10th ranking team, skipping the teams in 11th and 12th positions.
However, that only made the spectators scoff at the Phudaclite Team, as it was no different from a reckless decision.
After all, the Phudaclite Team only had one Tier-3 Low-Phase, while the Geigawa Team at the 10th position had three such members.
Shortly, the Challenge Match began with the strongest Alpha Chosen from both teams facing each other for the 1st Bout.
Gorgon, the strongest of the Geigawa Team, pulled out his daggers and coated them with Aura before dashing towards his opponent.
Phuroth, the strongest one from the Phudaclite Team, didn't wait for the incoming attack and countered with an Aura attack of his own.
However, he didn't wield any weapon; rather, his entire body was almost as tough as a weapon, with Aura coating his entire body.
However, even as one of the Martial Innate Talent users, Phuroth didn't gain any upper hand in the full frontal collision.
That didn't mean he was on the losing end, just that his close-quarter prowess was way more refined than a typical Weapon Innate Talent user.
Both sides exchanged several moves in no time, with neither revealing a weak link in their defence.
But as the Bout intensified, attacks started to land on Phuroth one after another.
It became apparent that Gorgon had rich combat prowess among the two.
After all, unlike Phuroth, Gorgon didn't have Aura covering his entire body and still didn't take even a single hit.
If it weren't for the steadfast defence of a Martial Innate Talent user, Phuroth would have been pushed into a corner.
The Bout contained for a while with no twists and turns, with Gorgon maintaining the upper hand.
Just as the audience were about to lose interest, something unusual happened.
Phuroth punched with all his might at a spot that was a meter off the mark, and Gorgon moved to his right and placed his face right where the punch was about to land.
The next thing everyone heard was a loud bang followed by the unconscious Gorgon crash landing onto the barrier before falling off to the stage.
Silence remained in the Colosseum at the unexpected turn of events for a while.
Back in the Earth Team's seating area, Jay and Olivia looked at each other but said nothing.
Kasim caught onto that and asked Olivia, "Miss Olivia, What just happened at the end?"
The others perked up their ears to learn about the odd ending of the Bout.
Seeing that the others were curious, Olivia elaborated, "The Martial Innate Talent user casted an illusion ability in the final moment, although it's a weak one, that was enough to make his opponent visualise it as if he would receive the hit if not evaded to his right. But in reality, the exact opposite played out."
After hearing all that, a few gasps escaped from the Earth's Alpha Chosen.
They didn't expect there was another participant with dual Innate Talents who hid really well.
They could only speculate that Illusion Innate Talent must have been a lower Grade one since he didn't blatantly display it and used it sparingly.
Jay neither confirmed nor denied it. He simply continued to look at Phuroth with unadorned interest pasted across his face.
Soon, the 2nd Bout began, and there weren't any ups and downs in it as Phuroth won with relative ease before repeating the same in the 3rd Bout, winning the Challenge Match against the Geigawa Team.
Just like that, a new Team entered the Top-10, taking everyone by surprise.
If you have any suggestions for this chapter, I am all ears. I will make any reasonable corrections based on your feedback.